RTW Strategies: Washington’s COHE Model

What would it take to adopt/adapt key components of the COHE model to address your state’s workers’ compensation program challenges? (Please consider the required policy changes, the key players that would need to be convinced, and the supports, resources or materials that would help address their concerns and overcome barriers.)

More Details

This national online dialogue will explore ways that states might adopt or adapt occupational health best practices and care coordination strategies from Washington’s Centers of Occupational Health and Education (COHE) model to improve outcomes for injured workers.

Each year, millions of workers develop a chronic illness or sustain an injury that threatens their ability to work. Many may leave the labor force, especially if they do not receive and use timely and effective health, rehabilitation, and employment services. Key stakeholders in the Workers’ Compensation system - from insurers, to employers, to health care providers to the injured workers themselves – will benefit from stay-at-work/return-to-work strategies that promote workforce attachment.

In the State of Washington, Centers of Occupational Health and Education (COHEs) work with medical providers, employers, and injured workers in a community-based program designed to ensure timely, effective and coordinated services. COHEs improve injured worker outcomes and reduce disability by training providers and coordinating care. For more information about the COHE model see State of Washington Department of Labor and Industries. See also our recent webinar Replicating and Adapting COHE Strategies.

The timely, effective coordination of services for of individuals to remain in the labor force is one of many issues that are being addressed by the Labor Department's Office of Disability Employment Policy’s Stay-at-Work/Return-to-Work (SAW/RTW) Policy Collaborative . This online dialogue focuses on what it would take for other states to replicate or adapt COHE strategies in their state’s service delivery and policy context. This information will be used to guide the work of a Policy Working Group to develop resources and materials to assist states and other key stakeholders in improving services to injured workers.

As you submit your ideas or comment and vote on ideas submitted by others below, please keep the following guiding questions in mind:

Transition Back to Work

Providing light duty or part-time work, and partial disability payments during the transition back to work, can encourage workers to return earlier, minimizing the likelihood they will drop out of the workforce.

It can be a huge loss to lose an employee and it may become necessary to reassign duties to other workers or even bring in a replacement. Offering employers wage subsidies for workers or for accommodations is a promising strategy for facilitating return-to-work.

10

34

Washington COHE Model

What would it take to adopt/adapt key components of the COHE model to address your state’s workers’ compensation program challenges? (Please consider the required policy changes, the key players that would need to be convinced, and the supports, resources or materials that would help address their concerns and overcome barriers.)